World Cup format revealed

Organisers of the 2013 Rugby League World Cup have defended the convoluted format unveiled at Tuesday night's official launch.

England, who will jointly host the five-week tournament with Wales, have been placed in the same pool as Australia, along with Fiji and Ireland, and with three teams to qualify for the quarter-finals, are virtually assured of a last-eight spot.

"Rugby league is at its best when the matches are close and, with the way those groups are set up, there are going to be a lot of close matches," said Rugby Football League chairman Richard Lewis.

Lewis admits the RFL have closely followed the model adopted by the Australians at the last World Cup in 2008.

That format was initially ridiculed but it achieved its objective of avoiding one-sided matches and was widely regarded as a success, generating a profit of around £2million.

This time the competition has been enlarged from 10 teams to 14 and there will be a quarter-final round.

Speaking at the launch, held at Manchester's new MediaCityUK three years to the day to the 2013 final, Lewis predicted the 14th staging of the World Cup will be the best yet, with meticulous planning well under way.

"We're three years out but a lot of work has gone on and we're starting to go public with it bit by bit," he said.

Wales, who failed to qualify in 2008, and Cook Islands were confirmed as two of the additional teams, with the other two to come from qualifying tournaments to be hosted in 2011 by Serbia and America and also including Italy, Lebanon, Russia, Jamaica and South Africa.

No venues have yet been chosen but organisers will be tempted to kick off the tournament with England versus Australia at Wembley, as they did with notable success in 1995, while Old Trafford, Murrayfield and the Millennium Stadium will also be under consideration to stage the final.